| Summary : A medieval motte is visible as an earthwork on air photographs. A Medieval motte and probable bailey surviving as earthworks. The castle was in existence by 1086 and fell into ruins after 1232. The mound is conical in form, slightly oval in plan with a diameter of 120 feet at its longest base, and 25 feet across the summit. There was no ditch between the mound and the bailey. A careful excavation in 1856 revealed a boulder pavement at a depth of 11 feet below the summit. Finds overlying the pavement included a broken paddle, net sinkers, a prickspur, a spindle whorl, wooden pegs, iron nails and animal bones. These remains have been interpreted as the remains of a Saxon Hall, but may represent an earlier phase of the Motte's keep. Scheduled. The Motte mound may have been used as a moot in Norman times. |
More information : SD 52442907 Castle Hill (NR). (1)
Penwortham Castle, named in the Domesday Survey as existing in 1086, appears to have been allowed to fall into ruins after 1232. (2)
Earthwork Class E (ie Motte & Bailey). Stands at the end of a high promontory 70 yds NNW of Penwortham Church within the area of the extended graveyard. The mount is conical in form, slightly oval in plan with a diameter of 120 ft at its longest base, and 25 ft across the summit. No ditch now divides the mount from the plateau which evidently formed the bailey (but one is shown in illustration). It has been suggested that there was a second stockaded bailey on the lower plateau (? on the north side). Apart from general wear of the slopes, the east side of the mount has been eroded by the river.
A fairly careful excavation in 1856 revealed at a depth of 11 ft below the summit of the mount, the boulder pavement, timbers and wattling of what seems to have been a circular palisaded dwelling divided into several chambers, and erected on a low mount. A broken central oak post 5 ft high was still standing. Finds from a 2 ft 6 ins stratum of decayed vegetable matter overlying the pavement included a broken paddle, two lead net sinkers, a prickspur, spindle whorl, iron nails, wooden pegs and animal bones. A second pavement was laid 5 ft above this dwelling before the mound was subsequently raised at least a further 7 ft. The problem yet to be solved is whether the first mound with the remains upon it was the keep of the important little castle known to have been erected shortly prior to 1086. (3)
The early remains at Castle Hill were probably those of a Saxon Hall, and it is possible that the mound was used as a moot even in Norman times. (4)
The motte, although overgrown, is reasonably well-preserved, see photograph. Traces of the ditch separating it from the bailey on the SW side survive, but there are no bounding features to the latter. There is now no means of telling whether there was ever a second lower bailey. (5)
Published survey (25") correct. (6)
SD 5245 2907. Castle Hill motte. Scheduled RSM No 13446. (7)
A medieval motte is visible as an earthwork on air photographs, centred at SD 5244 2907. Its full dimensions cannot be ascertained due to dense tree coverage upon the slopes. The feature appears to be extant on the latest 1992 Ordnance Survey vertical photography.
(8) |